Very Disco: Hitman Absolution

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Somehow, this is the first official in-game footage of Hitman: Subtitle which has been released to the hungry eyes of the public. Feast, feast!

As Adam worried in his preview t’other week, old 47 doesn’t appear to be quite so silent an assassin as he once was, but it’s good to see he’s still playing fancy dress in between punching people and shooting people and throwing people and choking people.

Well, that was far too short. Also, is 47 Batman now?

There was at least a hint of hiding in there though, so hopefully us old, moany men will be able to play it as a relatively stealthy game. I don’t get the sense it’s going to be like the oddball, bravura ingenuity of Hitman: Blood Money, however. Now there is a game. It’s way past time I replayed it. To be honest, I’m not even sure IO could possibly surpass it – which might go some way to justifying why they’re taking 47 in a new, grimdarkier direction.

Update! I am pointed at the following 17 minutes of Hitman Subtitle (thanks, Sky):

That, er… that sure ain’t Blood Money, is it? I didn’t realise 47 had a cameo in the next Deus Ex: Human Revolution DLC. Stick with it though – around the 11 minute mark things start to become a little more like ‘our’ Hitman, albeit with more cutscenery. Also, donuts. Great ending, too – that telltale mind-tickle of excitement is now upon me.

Yes, exactly, that tutorial mission never was representative of the game. And yet this video looks like it: Scripted and linear. It MAY actually be a tutorial mission, and I hope it is, but if that is not the case they will not have my monies.

The youtube comments say that you can turn off the “Hitman Vision” (see through walls). I REALLY hope this is true.
That said, I hope this is just an intro level, I dont want another “hide in chest high walls” stealth game, I want to hide in plain sight.

One more thing, I am the only one who thinks it would be cool if 47 could use make up? I’ve always thought it was stupid that he didnt cover the giant bar code in his neck. I would like to be able to use wigs and fake beards and such to impersonate other people. Oh well, back to reality.

Its true, but then you could also not use mark and execute in Conviction. The trouble was that the entire gameplay loop was designed around it. They’ve also removed the proper map I believe, so make of that what you will.

Stealth based on a cover system will be filled to the brim with chest high walls… just look at Deus Ex: HR or splinter cell conviction. At least conviction was more creative with its chest high walls. You can watch his health amazingly recharge after being shot at 9:17. More than likely if the game needs rechargeable health there will be a lot of shooting going on. That is just inexcusable in a hitman game >:-/

I don’t see the problem with either of those features unto themselves. Regenerative health fits here as 47 is genetically engineered. Cover is used more for hiding, which again fits. The problem would be if these things were used to turn the game into a generic shooter. After all, what concern would cover and health be if the game didn’t require that you rely on either?

Thus the part where not only detection, but combat seemed unavoidable is the bigger problem.

Hitman is actually one of the few games where regeneratin health is a good idea. In Hitman, the amount of being screwed is directly proportional to how many people you’ve pissed off, rather than inversely proportional to the amount of red pixels in your health bar.

47 always could take a hell of a lot of punishment. Regenerating health could mean that he won’t be able to withstand so much damage in a single fight as before. So screw ups could actually hurt you worse. Theoretically, that is. But given how health used to work in the game, I don’t really see why any change to it could be seen as making the game easier. The game is mainly about avoiding detection. In my book, getting shot at is already something of a failure.

You must have not played the same game as me because 47 couldn’t take much punishment before everything turned red and slow motion in blood money.

How exactly would 47 take less damage to die with a regenerative health system? In fact it allows him to take infinite damage and is easily exploited. With the cover system paired with the regenerative health 47 will now be extremely difficult to kill because all you have to do now when you are close to death is just find a chest/waist high wall to hide behind (that will more than likely be everywhere.) for like 3 seconds. Then you’re all set to take on everyone with full health again! If you believe being spotted is pretty much a failure then shouldn’t the game punish you such away to make it extremely difficult to be completed?

I am…what. Leaving aside the linearity and the Inception music at the end; I really don’t like the new voice for 47. The whole thing with him is that he had an non-specific ‘international’ accent that can be confused with American south or north European and even Australian. Now it’s so coastal American he has no mystery to him and doesn’t fit with a man raised from birth in an isolated unit that then travelled the entire world after escaping.

My theory is that they’re making it less good so that Kane & Lynch seems less shit.

So this is basically Arkham Asylum meets SC: Conviction. Hmm. I am a huuuuge hitman fan, playing everyone one multiple times (well maybe not 1 :P ) and getting the best ratings on all levels. But this doesn’t really show me that we have options. Hopefully this won’t be the case with all the levels. Such a wierd level to show off :/

All we know is that IO Interactive parted ways with David Bateson after Blood Money. There is an ongoing ordeal between them since then but information is sparse “for legal reasons”. Quite a shame really since Bateson is Agent 47.

I like how toppling a (mute?) man to fall 30 feet to his death is a silent takedown. Can’t really single this game out for that kind of silliness, though–preternaturally quiet actions are the norm in all stealth games.

My fingers are crossed that they don’t pull a Red Faction: Armageddon manoeuvre with this game.
“So what do people like least about our games? The story and the shooting. Perhaps if we just concentrate on those…”
There were some promising signs in that gameplay video though. This one is still filed under “maybe”.

I can’t see anything in that trailer that suggests I should get this rather than just play Conviction again. When you copy so much of what’s been done before you give people little reason to get your game over the ones you’re coping from. Of all the elements of a Hitman game that could be shown the ones that make it look like a generic stealth action game don’t seem like the best ones to make people who don’t already know the franchise remember your game. That goes for the music as well, apparently everything from Battlefield 3 to this is ripping off Inception now, how are we supposed to remember any of them?

Also, and this is getting really petty, but shouldn’t there be a fairly obvious bullet hole in the police jacket he changes into?

I like that idea. You should only be able to take their clothes if you don’t make a mess of them. Should only be a option if you make a stealth kill… even though it was a stealth kill it was hardly necessary to shoot through the heart. Would have been a good feature to add but i guess they were to busy “modernizing” the game.

I really do hope that this is just an introductory mission, much like the tutorial of Blood Money, or that it is a particular section not representative of the rest of the game, such as there being the odd mission like this here and there just to mix up the pacing.

There’s a lot of hate in these comments. I don’t sympathise though, I thought the trailer was rather good and got me excited for the next installment. Sure, the mission was obviously NOT a typical hitman mission. He was being hunted and if that exact same scenario was in bloody money I can’t fathom how 47 would be able to plan it out or sneak away without incapacitating/ killing a few. People who think this is indicative of the final product are getting ahead of themselves, its something different and more modern and its only one level – heck I think its good that Hitman has adopted some new modern gameplay like detective vision, cover mechanics and maybe some wall climbing, it just depends on what they do with it.

What I really liked about the trailer was the NPC reactions to 47 when in disguise. It really irked me in the previous installments that by wearing a disguise 47 was practically invisible to everyone else. There are a lot more NPCs running around and they all seem to have some dialogue or action to do, i enjoyed some of the police conversations and the pot house bit was quite funny. I hope this game turns out well, been a fan since hitman 2.

Never been one for the Hitman series. For some reason, enemy guards are always magically able to tell you’re not one of them just by looking at you for a few seconds – even if your entire face is concealed.

Try Blood Money. Most disguises are extremely effective in that one–if you stay in the “allowed” areas, I don’t think it’s possible to be discovered unless you outright brandish a weapon or attack someone.

What they are trying to showcase with the extended clip is variety in method, rather than ‘let’s play silent assassin’ I imagine. I suspect it’s entirely possible to sneak through the level without recourse to murderizing or pulling a gun on anyone if that’s the route you choose to go down. That they have taken some cues from SC is no bad thing really given that game (much like DX:HR) paddles in the same waters. Visual effects and look are good. Pity that there’s a few repeat models on the go when it comes to the crowd scene, and the face off with the police.

It didn’t seem possible to finish the level without making it known you were there in the first place. You have to at least smash a window and subdue one guard for the clothes. It also didn’t seem possible to avoid detection by the helicopter.

To me, this looked like the tutorial mission with the tutorial hints turned off. So it most likely is meant to teach you the game and the various ways you can go about doing your assassinations. So I believe stuff like taking a human shield were mandatory, just for teaching purposes.

I’m fairly sure 47 didn’t kill the first guy, but instead choked him out. So it’s not necessarily impossible to get though the level without killing anyone. As for routes, I’m sure there’s options, that all lead up to that final escape scene.

Nothing particularly revolutionary to say:
1. Looks like batman
2. Hope the batman vision is only available in easy difficulty/isn’t in harder ones
3. This playthrough is freaking ridiculous – silent assassin would have been far more impressive. Given it was purely an escape there should have been 0 killings and 0 sightings. Hitman is freaking badass because of his menace – you know he can murder people but he doesn’t. He should NOT be action man shoot hero man #912.
4. pretty – faces look good
5. slowmo when people looking at you with comments is kinda cool if not overdone
6. a lot of conveniently waist height walls/shelves in that level.
7. apartment full of weed showing IO humour
8. Achievements (bong hits) – unsurprising – suspect I will earn all of them regardless how ridiculous.
and
9. Music moving away from the budapest orchestral score style in sections – not sure if I am happy about that.
10. DOOOOOON. DOOOOOOON. (apologies I could not come up with a more accurate onomatopoeia) Inception will never be forgiven for adding that to soundtracks.

Regardless this will be a pre order. Hitman games are worse than crack for me.

Hitman games have always had dynamic difficulty levels that go a bit deeper than “bullets hurt more.” I have little doubt the “Hitman vision” will be absent on the higher difficulties, if not a check box or a button that can be deactivated at will.

As for all the loud murdering…its a trailer. Walking around for 10 minutes and killing one guy doesn’t generate much hype for your game, even if that is the suggested and most rewarding way to play the game (like it is in every Hitman). Can’t say all of the trailers for previous games match this one, but if I’m being honest the gamer has gotten dumber over the last decade.